Top lift.



I. LUND.

TOP LIFT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29, 1909.

999,049. Patented July 25, 1911 waw' UNITED STATES PATENT curios.

THOMAS LUND, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NE\V JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

TOP LIFT.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS LUND, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Top Lifts, of which the following description, in connect-ion with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to top lifts and more particularly to top lifts which have been molded or condensed by pressure prior to attaching them to heels.

In attaching top lifts to heels it is important that the top lift be brought into close and even contact with the face of the heel. This result may be secured more readily when the lifts are molded or condensed than when they are not so treated, on account of the changes in form which occur in the molding or condensing operation, such as are described in United States Letters Patent, 781,236, granted January 31, 1905, to C. 0. Small. In molding or condensing top lifts, however, afin is formed at the junction of the peripheral surface of the lift with the inner face of the lift, interfering with the proper attachment of the lift. The production of a fin at this point is mainly due to the wear to which the parts of the mold are subjected, and it has been found impossible in practice to prevent the formation of such fins. In the use of machines and methods heretofore commonly employed the fin which has been formed has projected approximately normally to the inner face of the top lift, and'inasmuch as the face of the heel overlaps the edges of the top lift in the attaching operation the top lift is prevented from being pressed into close engagement with the heel. A crack is thus caused to be brought into view between the top lift and heel in the trimming operation. The presence of the fin referred to may also result in the top lift being given a position in which it is in a non-parallel relation to the face of the heel.

The object of the present invention is to provide a molded or condensed top lift which may be brought into close and even contact with the face of the heel to which it is attached. According to the present invention the fin occurring at the junction of the peripheral surface with the inner face Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 29, 1909.

Patented July 25, 1911.

Serial No. 499,083.

of the top lift is given such -a position that it will not interfere with bringing the top lift into close contact with the face of the heel. This position may conveniently be one in which the fin projects from the top lift approximately in the plane of the inner face thereof. In this position no portion of the fin lies between the heel and top lift when these two parts are pressed together in attaching the top lift.

lVhile a close and even contact between top lift and heel is permitted when the fin projects from the top lift in the plane of the inner face thereof it is not essential to the present invent-ion that the fin have this precise position. A top lift having a fin proj ecting laterally from the peripheral surface of the top lift in such a manner that no portion of it lies between the heel and the top lift after attachment of the top lift is in cluded within the present invention.

In the drawings,Figure 1 is a perspective View of a top lift embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 shows the top lift of Fig.

1 applied to a heel; Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view illustrating a mold which may be employed in the production of a top lift shown in the preceding figures.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral 1 indicates a condensed top lift embodying the present invention. At the junction of the inner face of the top lift 1 with the peripheral surface thereof is a fin 2 which, as will be clearly apparent from Fig. 2, projects from the top lift in the plane of its inner face. In Fig. 2 a heel 4: is illustrated having applied thereto a top lift 1 of the form shown in Fig. 1. As will be seen from Fig. 2 the fin 2 does not interfere with a close and even contact of the top lift and the heel.

The mold shown in Fig. 3 as one example of a means for producing the top lift of the present application is the same as that disclosed in United States Letters Patent, No. 959,869, granted May 31, 1910. In this figure the inner face of the top lift is engaged by a bed plate 6 and the outer face by a presser 8. The breast edge of the lift is molded by a breast die 10, and the sides and curved end of the lift are molded by side dies 12. It will be seen from this figure that any fin formed upon the top lift in the line of contact of the breast die and the side dies with the bed plate will project in a direction parallel with the face of the bed plate and consequently in the plane of the inner face of the top lift. The fin will thus be outside of a normal to the inner face of the top lift at the line of intersection of the peripheral surface and the plane of the inner face of the lift.

For a further disclosure of the construction and mode of operation of the parts shown in Fig. 3 reference may be had to the patent above referred to. It will be understood that top lifts embodying the present invention may be produced by means other than the molds shown in Fig. 3.

It will be observed that the top lift shown herein is of the general form of that covered by United States Letters Patent, 890,434, granted June 9, 1908, to B. F. Mayo. The peripheral surface of the top lift along the sides and curved end is in part normal to the tread face of the lift and in part has an oblique relation thereto. In the trimming operation the part of the peripheral surface adjacent to the tread face of the lift and normal to said face is employed as a gaging surface. It will be seen that the fin 2 does not interfere with the use of this portion of the top lift as a gage in the trimming operation. It will be understood that in the trimming operation a portion of the top lift above the gaging part referred to is removed. All trace of the fin 2 is consequently removed in the trimming operation.

By the term inner face used in the foregoing specification and the following claims I intend to define that face of a top lift which will be in contact with the heel after the top lift is attached; this is usually the flesh side of a top lift, but the term inner face as herein used is not so restricted in meaning.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A molded top lift having the fin at the junction of its peripheral surface with its inner face projecting approximately in the plane of said face.

2. A top lift condensed by pressure applied both laterally and Vertically thereto, and having the fin at the junction of its peripheral surface with its inner face projecting approximately in the plane of said face.

3. A molded top lift having the fin at the junction of its peripheral surface with its inner face projecting laterally from said surface.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS LUND.

Witnesses:

CHESTER E. Roenns, LEONARD M. JorINsoN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

